This disclosure relates generally to an additively manufactured casting article and method for preparing the same. The casting article can be used to manufacture a gas turbine engine part having a desired internal cooling circuitry.
Gas turbine engines typically include a compressor section, a combustor section, and a turbine section. In general, during operation, air is pressurized in the compressor section and is mixed with fuel and burned in the combustor section to generate hot combustion gases. The hot combustion gases flow through the turbine section, which extracts energy from the hot combustion gases to power the compressor section and other engine loads.
Due to exposure to hot combustion gases, numerous components of a gas turbine engine may include internal cooling features. Current manufacturing techniques may limit the possible internal cooling features that can be formed inside of gas turbine engine parts. Many parts are cast using a mold having two or more portions secured to one another to define an exterior surface of the part. A core may be positioned relative to the mold to form the internal cooling features of the part, including but not limited to mainbody cooling passages, impingement holes, ribs, microcircuits, or other structures. The core is typically assembled from multiple elements constructed from different materials. The core elements are assembled to one another in what is often a painstaking assembly process.